Few weeks ago, we reported that the Ugandan government imposed a compulsory tax of 200 shillings per day in order to use social media. This directive became effective since the beginning of this month where Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, and all other social media users are by law required to pay tax.
You can continue using this social media services as long as you pay your tax, and the officials over there have made it convenient as payment can now be paid right through mobile phones. Apart from the popular social networks, even fairly-known OTT services like Tinder, Tumblr, etc., has been blocked.
Many people have been flocking over to VPNs so as not to be affected by this new OTT tax decree. The government, however, noticed this and has ordered local Internet Service Providers (ISP) to block the use of VPNs.
MTN, Airtel and other internet providers in Uganda—including Africell—have answered this call by the government. They have blocked internet access for those who do not pay the tax, while giving incentives to those who pay the tax a month in advance.
We in Nigeria don't know our fate because there have been reports and rumors that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is set to increase call charges and price of data plans to a ridiculous 250MB for N1000.
Interestingly, these tax and increments are imposed just to control what users carry out on social media. And there is certainly a better way of doing that. The big question now is how long before such a bill is implemented in other African countries?
You can continue using this social media services as long as you pay your tax, and the officials over there have made it convenient as payment can now be paid right through mobile phones. Apart from the popular social networks, even fairly-known OTT services like Tinder, Tumblr, etc., has been blocked.
Many people have been flocking over to VPNs so as not to be affected by this new OTT tax decree. The government, however, noticed this and has ordered local Internet Service Providers (ISP) to block the use of VPNs.
MTN, Airtel and other internet providers in Uganda—including Africell—have answered this call by the government. They have blocked internet access for those who do not pay the tax, while giving incentives to those who pay the tax a month in advance.
We in Nigeria don't know our fate because there have been reports and rumors that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is set to increase call charges and price of data plans to a ridiculous 250MB for N1000.
Interestingly, these tax and increments are imposed just to control what users carry out on social media. And there is certainly a better way of doing that. The big question now is how long before such a bill is implemented in other African countries?
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